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Monday, August 27, 2012

Nothing like having the waivers posted to make a race seem closer and more real. I pulled mine up and I'm going to be bib #10192. Way way way in the back of the corrals...again. I have no idea how many runners there are registered, but I'm hoping it's way more than 10,000 so I'm not in the very last corral. I've avoided the last corral for my last few Disney races, crossing my fingers that it's the same for this one.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Okay, I’ve seen several different blogs doing a “this or that” for these so I’m jumping in too. Not that I eat or drink any of these things too much...*hides guilty face*

So, here we go:

1. Coke or Pepsi?

Definitely Coke. When I was a kid, I would go through phases where I’d like one, then switch to the other. Now it’s all Coke, I think it's sweeter with a slight citrus touch. But I’d rather have a Mr. Pibb.

2. Caramel Apple or Cotton Candy?

Both are favorites, but I’ve got to go with cotton candy. Especially when I can find the purple cotton candy at Disney World...mmmmmm.......plus cotton candy is less calories. Yes, I know it is straight sugar. What's your point LOL

3. Salt or Pepper?

Depends what I’m eating...I usually don’t use much of either, but I suppose I use more salt than pepper.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Um, yeah...can you say sweaty? I had to peel my clothes off afterward. But that’s 4.15 miles done with the rest of the day ahead to enjoy. I’m very glad I have a haircut this afternoon as even with my hair in a ponytail thru the back of my hat, it’s gotten long enough that it was sticking to the top of my back, neck and shoulders. While I wouldn’t mind my hair growing longer, it’s just too annoying for workouts. I could always pigtail it, but I’ve got way too many layers cut in to try in an attempt get some body out of my very fine hair, so braids just wind up having hair sticking out every which way.

So, I had a couple of peeves going on today. First--attention all SoFla lizards! While I respect the fact that you are animals who live outside so pretty much everywhere outside is your home, why oh why oh why do you have to wait until the very last second as I’m coming by to race from one side of the sidewalk to the other? You have been very lucky so far, but I refuse to hurt myself pulling up or over-lunging to miss stepping on you guys...one of these days it’ll be SQUISH! And at this point I won’t feel badly about it.

Second--my town is actually very fitness-friendly with miles and miles of sidewalks and bike lanes as well as 14 parks plus a YMCA center in our 27-square mile town of just over 65,000 residents. In fact, most of the sidewalks here are usually 1.5 times as wide as your average sidewalk with many areas at least 2 to 2.5 times as wide. We have tons (yes, I’m not exaggerating) of cyclists and dozens of bike groups that ride out here, from packs of 2-4 people to well over 100 at a time that will zoom by as I’m doing my miles. It’s actually pretty exhilarating to be walking or running along and have such large groups flying by.

That said, there are some cyclists to choose not to use the bike lanes and instead ride on the sidewalks. And I’m fine with that, especially when there’s kids riding. But when I’m walking or running along all the way to one side of the sidewalk and you are riding two abreast, why do you think that I’m the one who has to move over into the grass while you pass by? Seriously, and with our sidewalks being as wide as they are? In the state of Florida, the law says you have to yield the right of way to pedestrians, not the other way around.

Sorry, but this happened to me twice this week so it makes me grumble.

On the “it makes you smile” side today--lots of butterflies out this morning, even as humid as it was. Made me want to stop and try to get one to land on my hand (love it when they do that), but they were more interested in the flowers than me. They did make me smile as I passed by though. Not used to seeing them out early in the morning when it’s still so humid out. Maybe it’s a sign summer weather will give way to fall weather sooner. Yeah, not likely but I can dream, right? In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the butterflies :-)

Monday, August 6, 2012

So right now I only have two races on my schedule-the Tower of Terror 10 Miler at the end of September and the Disney Full Marathon in January. If I was only training for the full, I wouldn’t need to start my “official” training plan until the last week of August. With the 10-miler on the schedule, my plan started two weeks ago. Now I will admit, I kinda stink at cross-training days...I always have (even though I KNOW those days will only help me overall). I don’t mind yoga or upper body weights so much, it’s the lower body (meh) and core (UGH UGH UGH) that I’m not fond of. But, I do usually stick pretty close to my mileage days, maybe with some flip-flops here and there--meaning flip-flopping miles with cross training days--when needed due to weather or work or life.

What gets me is my thinking about the 10-miler. “Oh, it’s ONLY a 10-miler, no biggie”. And so the motivation to actually DO the training is quite a bit lacking. Well, at least the cross training part.I even look at the mileage days and think “Eh, just 2 miles today...whatever”. After completing 9 half marathons and one full marathon, 10 miles just doesn’t seem like something to get excited over. Is that crazy or what? When I tell a non-runner friend/co-worker that I’m doing a 10-mile race, they can’t fathom going that far--but then again, neither could I when I first started out.

So the question now is, how to motivate for those shorter distances? And how to motivate for cross-training in general? I also train solo-both cross-training and mileage. That makes it all too easy to blow off a day since I don’t have anyone in my face to be accountable to. I’m not at all concerned about the full marathon portion of the training. I actually enjoyed that last time (well, at least the mileage part...), though I still ran into the same motivation issue for the cross-training. What’s a good way to motivate? I was thinking of using a rewards system...has anyone ever tried that as a motivation tool for their training?

Okay, now on the the new adventure. If you’ve been reading my blog for a bit, you probably know I am a Disney freak. It is my favorite place in the USA to vacation, whether just for a quick weekend or something much longer. I’m always looking to plan my next trip (often because there’s a Disney race going on!). Because I love Disney so much...and just travel in general...I decided to work on becoming a Disney Vacation Planner. After weeks (well, almost two months actually) of comparing host travel agencies, then choosing my agency and getting set up, I am now able to plan and book vacations-Disney or pretty much anywhere else you can think of!

I’ve set up my own Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/MagicalMomentsVacationsbyCarraSaigh and today launched my very own website, www.enchanteddreamvacations.com. Let me tell you, putting together a website is HARD work! My brain was totally fried. I did have lots of help from my techie DH (thanks honey!) without whom I’d have floundered around for ages. I did teach myself some new tricks but am glad DH IS a techie because if he wasn’t I probably wouldn’t have attempted the website (or if I did I’d be working on it for months before it would be presentable).

Anyway, please take a look and tell me what you think. I want to make sure the site is user-friendly and appreciate any and all feedback! Oh, and if you need a vacation quote...... ;-) just let me know. I’ll be adding a link of some kind here (or maybe a page, like my training calendar is a page and “My Races” is a page, etc) for anyone who may need vacation planning/booking assistance.

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